


These Men of Honour

by Lauren (notalwaysweak)



Category: Red Dwarf
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2001-10-29
Updated: 2001-10-29
Packaged: 2017-10-05 23:19:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notalwaysweak/pseuds/Lauren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'The strap on your padded codpiece too tight again?' Again? How does Rimmer know? Let's see if Investigator Lauren can't find out... *tucks pencil behind ear, picks up clipboard, and heads off to Starbug to investigate...*</p><p>Dedicated to JB and the RDSS.</p>
            </blockquote>





	These Men of Honour

**Author's Note:**

> Red Dwarf characters belong to Grant Naylor.

'A power drain is knocking out all the generators!' Rimmer says, in response to Kryten's query as to what's going on.

'Cause?' Lister asks tersely.

**'**An object of such awesome power and charisma, it's flattened all the grids! At first I thought it was me -- turns out it's some kind of craft Dimension Jumping,' the Cat fills them in.

'Any ident details?' says Kryten.

Rimmer's face curdles. 'The last time we came across a lunatic trying to pull a stunt like this it was 'Captain Smug Git' himself, 'Ace Rimmer'. Dear God, don't make it be him, I couldn't bear it!'

Ow. It's not that hard to put on this mask, of hating Ace, because Ace really is better than him. But there are other things to be considered, from Ace's last visit. Things that both of them have to pretend never happened, or risk their social status, careers and friends -- so, Rimmer hasn't got much to lose, but Ace does, and Rimmer doesn't want Ace to lose it all.

* * *

'Name's Commander Rimmer... Ace Rimmer.'

From the introduction onwards, Rimmer is a bit lost for words. It's not that Ace is clearly so much more at ease with the others, or anything -- it's just, well, have you ever seen someone and instantly fallen in love with them? And Ace looks just different enough from Rimmer for Rimmer not to be disgusted by that factor.

* * *

As Ace comes out of the medi-bay after seeing to the Cat's leg, he spots Rimmer lurking in the hallway. He sees in the expression on Rimmer's face all the elements of hero-worship, and under that the nervousness and fear that used to be part of his own psyche, before he learned to fight it.

'Everything all right, Arn?'

'Um... yes. Everything's fine.'

Ace puts a comforting hand on his shoulder. 'The Cat's gonna be fine. I've seen to that.'

Lister rounds the corner on his scooter and stops. Ace takes his hand back from Rimmer's shoulder with the speed of a rattlesnake striking. 'Ah, Davey-boy!' he smiles. 'Something I can do for you?'

'Is the Cat alright?'

Ace could never, afterward, explain the answer he gives now. 'Nearly. I was just coming out for a breather... I've got to do the final closure and stitching.' He's still completely ignoring the fact that his own left arm is broken in about five places. _And_ the fact that he's already finished up on the Cat's leg.

'Can I go see him?' Lister asks.

'Not until I've finished - uncontaminated atmosphere, you know. Give it another twenty minutes, say, then come on back, my little scooter.' Ace is also ignoring the fact that his terms of endearment seem to have died. 'Go on, go and have something to eat, you must be famished.'

Lister nods unquestioningly and takes off back around the corner on his scooter.

'Now, what were you worried about, Arn?' Ace asks, turning back to Rimmer. 'Come on, you can tell me, I won't tell anyone.'

'Nothing,' Rimmer mumbles.

'I don't believe you,' Ace smiles. 'Now come on down here,' he adds, gesturing along the corridor to the door of the medical unit's hydrotherapy room. 'I know after that little op I need to clean up, and you look like a whirlpool would stand you in good stead.' Without waiting to see if Rimmer is following him, he strides off down the corridor. Rimmer waits a moment, then trots after him like a good puppy.

* * *

'Ahhh... that's better.' Ace leans back against the wall of the whirlpool and looks amusedly across at Rimmer, who is huddled on the other ledge.

'What's wrong, was your padded codpiece too tight?' Rimmer says snarkily.

Ace laughs. 'No need for animosity, friend. Besides, I don't wear a padded codpiece.'

Rimmer saw Ace getting into the whirlpool. He already knows the man doesn't need any padding. Unbidden, an image rises to the front of his mind: himself straddling Ace's lap, impaling himself on that cock.

'Go _away_!' he whispers to himself.

'Something the matter?' Ace asks, and the smirk on his face really is too much. Rimmer launches himself across the pool and starts trying to beat Ace up.

Within seconds he's trapped, Ace's hands locked around his wrists and holding his fists away from his face. Rimmer half-sits, half-floats over Ace's lap as the hero sits on the pool's ledge, and...

... and Rimmer feels a hardness that is not his own brush against his thigh.

He looks down into Ace's eyes, exactly like his own, bits of brown and green and gold all mixed together, and sees the question there. And nods.

Rimmer has to lower himself down because their hands are occupied, and it's a difficult way to manage, but finally he feels the smooth head of Ace's cock pushing against his opening, and with one good push Ace is inside him.

'Oh...'

Both of them say it; Rimmer, feeling so full, and Ace, because even though he's made love to both men and women before, it's never been like this.

Well, okay, it's been in a whirlpool, but not like this.

When Rimmer tries to take his hands back, Ace tightens his grip, and Rimmer lets out a little squeak of surprise. With him on top but trapped by Ace's hands, it's hard to tell who's in control. Both of them?

No.

Neither of them are really in control, and even though Rimmer's moving as slowly as he can, the soft slippy movements are too much for either of them to take for long. The bubbles of the pool churn around them, fountaining out of the jets either side of them, and Rimmer feels the bubbles buffet his cock, and the sensation draws a long gasp from him, and finally, his orgasm. At the same time as he comes, he feels Ace spasming inside him, and they both moan and gasp and then rest.

Rimmer leans his forehead against Ace's, and they look into each other's eyes, seeing pieces of themselves there.

'Better?' Ace asks in a conciliatory tone, letting go of Rimmer's hands and reaching up to brush soapy foam off Rimmer's shoulders.

'Yes.' Rimmer lifts himself up and off Ace, and feeling Ace slide out of him sends a last little jolt of excitement through him.

Ace stretches luxuriously in the water and looks at his watch, left on the side of the whirlpool. 'Ah. Best be getting back to the Cat. Dave'll be along any minute.'

'Hmmm.' There are no more words. They both have done what needed to be done.

* * *

'Go on -- he's probably picked a ring.' Jealousy sizzles through the words, for all the reasons Lister will never guess. Not _he's better than me_, but _You could have him to keep, and I can't._

* * *

And now, how many years later? -- Rimmer isn't sure -- they're back in the same little _Starbug_ and Ace is back again, this time with a very different test for him.

'The strap on your padded codpiece too tight again?'

_Sorry I made fun of you in front of everyone._

'Sorry to sound so damn melodramatic but... I'm afraid I'm... on the way out.'

Eye signals. _I know. It's okay._

And the little touches, helping Ace walk to and from A.R., even with Rimmer thinking that this mission is futile, give it some purpose for both of them.

When he dies, Rimmer isn't just crying because of the new officerhood and the ceremony. He's crying because, after all, it really should have been him.


End file.
